A controversy about crossbreeding in a conservation programme: The case study of the Flemish Red cattle breed

The aim of this paper was to understand the complexity of a conservation programme of a local breed by linking genetic and social data. This approach is illustrated by the case of the Flemish Red cattle breed, which has been crossbred since the 1950s, mainly with the Danish Red breed. Farmers and other people involved in the management of this breed were interviewed about breeding goals and practices. The genetic variability of the breed and the genetic impact of crossbreeding were assessed via pedigree data. The opportunity to use crossbreeding was found to be the main controversy, if not the only one, among the different institutional stakeholders involved in the management of the breed. However, the farmers said that they attributed little importance to the proportion of Danish Red genes in the AI bull genome. From the pedigree analysis, the proportion of Danish Red genes in the Flemish Red breed was found to increase from the early 1970s to the early 1980s and to then stabilise around an average value of 28%. The proportion of Flemish Red cows with no Danish Red genes in their genome decreased regularly and became null in the early 2000s. More than 90% of the Flemish Red cows born at that time had a proportion of Danish Red genes ranging from 1/8 to 1/2. The Danish Red genes were found to mainly originate from crossbred bulls and not from pure Danish Red bulls. This paper focuses on the nature of the gene pool preserved in such a case, and the need to clearly define the goals of conservation programmes is highlighted.